This ivory portrait medallion depicts an elegantly attired seven year old boy with shoulder length hair, faing to the left. He wears a lace-edged shirt and fingers the material with his right hand. He may have died young, if the design on the reverse represents a coffin. The subject is almost certainly a son of Elizabeth Eyre, whose portrait was dated in the same year, 1700, and her husand, Charles Nicholas Eyre, who is believed to have waited upon Queen Anne. The inscription on the back identifies the sitter, artist and date: 'CAROLUS CHESTER EYRE ARM. [armigerous] 1700 D.L.M.'

The same image was used as a model for a Wedgwood portrait medallion. This is the earliest dated portrait by the artist David Le Marchand in the museum's collections. David Le Marchand was one of the most important sculptors in ivory in the early 18th century. He was a native of France, and probably trained as an ivory-carved in Dieppe. He came to Britain at an early age, and all his known work was done in this country. Portraits in ivory were fashionable in the 17th and 18th centuries. Generally elephant or walrus ivory was used.